Kucinich Tries to Kill Vote on Medicare For All

by G H · 2009-11-05 18:33:00 UTC
Topics:

Kucinich

In a stunning about-face, Dennis Kucinich made a statement questioning a scheduled stand-alone vote on HR 676, Medicare For All. It was to be voted on Friday. Then he sent an email to supporters urging them to convince congressional leaders that now is not the time to vote on the single payer bill. Why would he try to kill his own baby?

It appears the House weakened the bill beyond recognition, as Kucinich says:

"... we want to offer a strong note of caution about tomorrow’s vote. The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted as a defeat for single payer."

There has been no Congressional debate over HR 676. There has been no mark-up of the bill. The CBO apparently scored a weakened version of the bill unfavorably. This is of course after Nancy Pelosi inexplicably removed Kucinich's state single-payer amendment from HR 3962 after the bill had been released. She disengenuously called it a "mistake" at the time, fooling no one. Then she didn't allow it back in via manager's amendment (somehow it was okay for the Republican "plan" to get in via manager's amendment, even when the CBO thrashed it.)

Overall it seems a patented "kill switch" political trick to do a test vote on HR 676 now. Pelosi killed state single payer by playing dirty pool. Now she's trying to kill single payer, period, by forcing a phony vote on a weakened HR 676. That is why Kucinich is now calling on his support base to temporarily surrender rather than go down in flames. Sadly, it seems Congress is hell-bent upon passing weak healthcare reform, no matter what dirt it has to pull out of its bag of tricks.

You can send an email to your representative here.

UPDATE: Anthony Weiner's amendment to HR 3962, which was a substitute for HR 676, has now also been sacrificed. Nancy Pelosi convinced Weiner to accept a no-vote for the good of overall reform. Her argument is not to let perfect get in the way of pretty good. In this case it would be more accurately stated as not letting good get in the way of pretty weak. 

Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustydarbonne/2099154382/sizes/m/  // CC BY 2.0

G H
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